# Zoran Jolevski

# Zoran Jolevski

Zoran Jolevski (born 16 July 1959 in Skopje) is a diplomat, economist and politician from the Republic of North Macedonia. He was ambassador of the Republic of Macedonia to the United States from 2007 to 2014, Skopje’s negotiator from December 2008 in the [United Nations](/organizations/united-nations) talks with Greece over the country’s name, and minister of defense in the cabinet of Nikola Gruevski from 2014 until the change of government in 2017. The state was then called the Republic of Macedonia in domestic use and, at the United Nations and the [World Trade Organization](/organizations/world-trade-organization), “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.” The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of North Macedonia lists him among its former ministers.

He took a bachelor’s degree in economics, a master’s degree in law and a doctorate in international economy at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, and he speaks English, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian and some French. From January 1983 to January 1988 he worked as a freelance tour director. He entered the [Ministry of Foreign Affairs](/organizations/ministry-of-foreign-affairs) in January 1988, where he prepared documents for observer status in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and was desk officer for the United Kingdom and Germany, and from 1992 to 1994 he was secretary to the coordination group on succession issues of the former Yugoslavia. From 1994 to 1998 he was first secretary at the permanent mission to the WTO and the United Nations Office at Geneva. Between September 1998 and December 1999 he was deputy national coordinator for humanitarian issues in the Kosovo refugee crisis and then worked on WTO accession and other trade and financial questions.

From January 2000 to May 2004 he was chief of staff in the cabinet of President [Boris Trajkovski](/people/boris-trajkovski) and chief adviser to the minister of economy on WTO accession. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia became the WTO’s 146th member on 4 April 2003, after the General Council approved its accession package on 15 October 2002 and parliament completed ratification. From 2004 to 2006 he was chief of party for two projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development and implemented with Booz Allen Hamilton, titled “WTO Compliance Activity” and “Macedonian Business Environment Activity,” and from May 2003 he taught international economic relations and foreign trade at European University.

The State Department’s spring 2007 diplomatic list named him ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Republic of Macedonia, and on 25 July 2007 he met President [George W. Bush](/people/george-w-bush) in the Oval Office during the credentials ceremony for newly appointed ambassadors. On 1 December 2008 Balkan Insight reported that the government would notify the UN envoy Matthew Nimetz of Jolevski’s appointment as negotiator with Greece, with President [Branko Crvenkovski](/people/branko-crvenkovski) expected to formalize it, after talks had stalled, Nikola Dimitrov had been removed, and Skopje had sued Greece at the International Court of Justice over the 1995 Interim Accord and Greece’s blocking of a NATO invitation at the April 2008 Bucharest summit. Parliament endorsed Gruevski’s new government on 19 June 2014 by 77 votes to six, and the coalition of [VMRO-DPMNE](/organizations/vmro-dpmne) and the Democratic Union for Integration gave the defense ministry to VMRO-DPMNE, which named Jolevski, previously the name-talks representative and described as the cabinet’s most notable newcomer. That tenure ended with the 2017 change of government: on 29 May 2017 Prime Minister-designate [Zoran Zaev](/people/zoran-zaev) proposed a cabinet in which Radmila Shekerinska would lead the defense ministry. In 2021 Jolevski was a fellow of [Harvard University](/organizations/harvard-university)’s Advanced Leadership Initiative; the program’s profile records his service as defense minister, ambassador to the United States, presidential chief of staff and first secretary in Geneva.

## Early life and education

### Childhood and schooling

Zoran Jolevski was born on 16 July 1959 in Skopje. The curriculum vitae published by the Embassy of the Republic of Macedonia in Washington during his ambassadorship gives the same date and birthplace, and states that he is married to Suzana Jolevska and is the father of two sons, Pero, born in 1988, and Filip Jolevski, born in 1992. A 2016 profile by Truthmeter (Vistinomer), a fact-checking project of the Metamorphosis Foundation in Skopje, records the same spouse and children.

Truthmeter states that he completed secondary school at the Orce Nikolov gymnasium in Skopje, graduating in 1978, and that as a pupil he won several awards at national mathematics championships. Its profile cites the [Ministry of Defence](/organizations/ministry-of-defence) and the Macedonian-language Wikipedia for the biographical summary.

AllGov’s profile of him as ambassador says he speaks English, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian, and some French. Truthmeter describes Macedonian as his mother tongue and lists English, French, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian, without describing his French as partial.

### University degrees

His first degree was in economics, from the Faculty of Economics of Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje, which Truthmeter dates to 1983. AllGov records a bachelor of economics from the University of Sts. Cyril and Methodius in Skopje, without giving the year.

He later received a Master of Science in Law from the university’s Faculty of Law. Truthmeter dates the degree to 1990 and titles the thesis “Бизнис стратегии на мултинационалните компании” (“Business strategies of multinational companies”). The embassy biography describes it as a two-year programme in international trade law and gives the English title “Business strategies of the multinational companies.”

In 1993 he obtained a postgraduate diploma from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, in the Netherlands, after a six-month programme in international relations and development, and from May to July 1994 he attended a trade-policy course of the [General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade](/organizations/general-agreement-on-tariffs-and-trade). The institute was created in 1952, through the Netherlands Universities Foundation for International Cooperation, as an independent English-language graduate school concerned with development. It joined Erasmus University Rotterdam as a university institute in 2009 and remained in The Hague; students graduating after that affiliation receive diplomas bearing both names. Truthmeter describes the 1993 course as study at an institute that is part of Erasmus University Rotterdam.

In February 2001 he defended a doctorate in international economic relations at the Faculty of Economics in Skopje. AllGov calls the degree a Ph.D. in international economy from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University. The embassy biography uses that same description and titles the dissertation “Foreign Trade Regime of the Republic of Macedonia and the WTO Agreements”; Truthmeter gives the Macedonian title “Надворешно-трговскиот режим на Македонија и СТО договорите.” The thesis concerned the country’s foreign-trade regime and the agreements of the World Trade Organization.

The later qualifications came after he had entered public service. AllGov places freelance work as a tour director from January 1983 to January 1988 and the start of his service in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in January 1988.

## Entry into diplomacy and trade

### Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Before entering government service, Zoran Jolevski worked from January 1983 to January 1988 as a freelance tour director. From January 1988 until October 1994 he served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the republic that is now North Macedonia. The state was admitted to the United Nations on 8 April 1993 under the provisional designation “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,” pending settlement of the dispute with Greece over its name.

From 1988 to 1992, published accounts assign him responsibility for preparing the documents needed for observer status in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, and the bilateral desk for the United Kingdom and Germany. The formal step came afterward: on 13 October 1993 the Ministry of Foreign Relations asked that an observer application be placed on the GATT Council’s agenda, and on 27 October 1993 the Council granted observer status to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The minutes do not name Jolevski as the representative who addressed the Council.

From 1992 to 1994 he was secretary to the Coordination Group on succession issues left by the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, an assignment also recorded in a December 2006 cable from the U.S. Embassy in Skopje. The division of assets, archives, and diplomatic and consular property was settled only by the Agreement on Succession Issues, signed in Vienna on 29 June 2001 by five successor states—including the state the register now lists as North Macedonia—and in force from 2 June 2004. Those records do not give Jolevski a part in the 2001 negotiation.

### Mission in Geneva

From 1994 to 1998 Jolevski was first secretary at the permanent mission in Geneva to the World Trade Organization and the United Nations Office at Geneva. The posting coincided with the opening of accession, not its end. The WTO records the application as received on 30 November 1994 and the working party as established on 21 December 1994; its five formal meetings were held on 10 July 2000, 15 March 2001, 7 December 2001, 23 May 2002, and 17 September 2002. The state became the 146th WTO member on 4 April 2003.

One Geneva assignment appears in a United Nations document rather than only in a biography. At an expert meeting of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), held at the Palace of Nations from 1 to 3 April 1998 and opened by Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero, the meeting elected Jolevski, listed for the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as vice-chairman-cum-rapporteur. The session reviewed how regional and multilateral investment agreements define investment and what those definitions imply for development, and it adopted agreed conclusions on 3 April 1998.

### Humanitarian coordination

Jolevski was back at the ministry from September 1998 to December 1999. In his last year there he was deputy national coordinator for humanitarian issues concerning refugees from Kosovo, and he also worked on WTO accession and other international trade and financial affairs.

The [Kosovo War](/facts/kosovo-war) produced a sudden movement of people into Macedonia in the spring of 1999. [Human Rights Watch](/organizations/human-rights-watch) reported more than 250,000 refugees in the country at the May peak, in a population of about two million, and as many as 65,000 people held for days without shelter at the Blace crossing. On the nights of 5 and 6 April, the organization wrote, authorities cleared Blace and moved people to NATO-run transit sites at Brazda and Stenkovec or onward to other countries, often without saying where they were going. It also criticized repeated border closures as incompatible with the duty not to return people to persecution, while noting official fear that the influx could unsettle ethnic relations.

The embassy cable describes a narrower role than later profiles. It says that, as coordinator, he helped manage donor assistance used to set up camps and to support what the cable put at 200,000 or more refugees from Kosovo; it does not present him as the official who set border policy. A 2021 Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative note says he “successfully coordinated” the national response, a wider claim than the 2006 cable. The AllGov biography, based on an official curriculum vitae, also lists him in 1998–1999 as an assistant to Boris Trajkovski. The embassy dates the next post, secretary-general of Trajkovski’s cabinet, from January 2000, and it is there that the cable calls him the technical point person for the accession completed in 2003.

## Cabinet of President Boris Trajkovski

### Chief of staff

Jolevski moved from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs into the office of President Boris Trajkovski at the start of 2000. A published biographical summary still places him at the ministry from September 1998 to December 1999, working on accession to the World Trade Organization and as an assistant to Trajkovski, then lists him from January 2000 to May 2004 as chief of staff of the presidential cabinet of the Republic of Macedonia—the constitutional name then used by the state now called North Macedonia—and as chief adviser to the minister of economy on WTO accession. A 2016 Truthmeter profile, whose sources include a Ministry of Defence biography, dates the post as secretary-general from 1 January 2000 to 1 June 2004 and, for 2000–2004, calls him deputy national negotiator and special adviser to the economy minister on the same accession.

A cable from the U.S. Embassy in Skopje on 13 December 2006 uses secretary-general of the cabinet for January 2000–May 2004, calls him one of Trajkovski’s closest confidants and a key interlocutor with the international community, and says he was not strongly identified with any single party. The same cable says that after the president’s death he left official life, but it dates that decision to December 2003, before both the crash and the May 2004 end date in the same text. Balkan Insight later noted that he had been chief of cabinet to Trajkovski; in May 2001 the *Taipei Times* called him director of the presidential office.

The presidency ended in a crash that killed several people from that office. On 26 February 2004 a government aircraft flying from Skopje to an investment conference in Mostar went down in fog and rain in the mountains of Herzegovina. Prime Minister Branko Crvenkovski said it was likely that Trajkovski and the other eight people aboard had died; RFE/RL, citing dpa, named staffers Dimka Ilkova Boskovic, Risto Blazevski and Anita Krista Lozanska, Mile Krstevski of the Foreign Ministry, two bodyguards and two crew. Jolevski was not aboard. A 2024 BBC Serbian interview, which said he had left the post at the beginning of February—earlier than the May and 1 June 2004 dates above—quoted him going to the cabinet that morning and using every available contact because the wreckage was not found for more than 24 hours.

### The 2001 conflict and Ohrid

The embassy’s specific credit for the secretary-general during the 2001 fighting concerns displacement, not the text of the settlement. The cable says international contacts praised his constructive attempts to deal with internally displaced persons, and it does not describe him as a signatory or as a member of the party negotiating teams. The [Ohrid Framework Agreement](/facts/ohrid-agreement) was concluded at Ohrid and signed at Skopje on 13 August 2001. It rejects violence for political aims, affirms the state’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and unitary character, and provides for a cease-fire and the voluntary disarmament of ethnic Albanian armed groups. The *Taipei Times*, writing while the fighting continued, dated the outbreak to February 2001. A 2021 Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative profile says he “helped lead the Ohrid agreement which brought peace to the country,” a later summary broader than the cable’s account of displacement and outside contacts.

### Trade and foreign policy

Restoring relations with China ran through the presidential office during the conflict. Macedonia had opened relations with Taiwan about two years earlier. On 25 May 2001 Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva, quoted by *Utrinski vesnik* via the *Taipei Times*, called that step a blunder and described China, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, as a friend that supported the country. The paper reported that Jolevski had left the day before on a one-week visit to Beijing “for what are said to be discussions on re-establishing ties,” after a seven-party government of national unity was formed on 13 May. Afterward he declined to discuss the trip, calling it an internal matter. The two governments signed a joint communiqué in Beijing on 18 June 2001, effective that day: Macedonia recognized one China, the People’s Republic as the sole legal government of the whole of China, and Taiwan as Chinese territory, and confirmed it would not have official relations with Taiwan; the sides agreed to re-establish embassies. Contemporaneous reporting placed Jolevski in the discussions before the signature, not at it.

On trade, the embassy wrote that he became an advocate of WTO accession, “carved out a niche for himself as the technical point person,” and helped bring the country into the organization in 2003. Ministers took the formal steps. The General Council approved the package on 15 October 2002. Minister of Economy Besnik Fetai, national coordinator for the accession, signed the Protocol of Accession. Ratification was notified on 5 March 2003, and on 4 April 2003 the country became the 146th member. Negotiations had begun in 1994.

## Consulting and academic work

### USAID projects

President Boris Trajkovski died after his aircraft went down in Bosnia and Herzegovina on 26 February 2004. Jolevski had been secretary-general of the presidential cabinet since January 2000. A December 2006 U.S. embassy biography carries that post through May 2004; Vistinomer, citing a Ministry of Defense biography, carries it through 1 June 2004. The same cable dates a decision to leave official life to December 2003, before both the crash and that May 2004 end date.

Vistinomer places him, from 1 June 2004 to 15 March 2006, as director of a project financed by the United States Agency for International Development and carried out by Booz Allen Hamilton on aligning Macedonia with the World Trade Organization. USAID’s delivery order to Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., “World Trade Organization Compliance Activity for Macedonia,” was signed on 1 October 2003, ran through 15 March 2006, and obligated $1,996,414.87. The award began before that directorship, and the public record does not name a chief of party. The embassy described him as a longtime local USAID chief of party for the Booz Allen WTO-compliance project in 2004–2006 and for a separate project, then still under way, on the Macedonian business environment. It credited him with helping to set up interministerial working groups on WTO requirements, including intellectual property enforcement, and did not evaluate results.

Vistinomer dates a second directorship, of a USAID-funded Booz Allen Hamilton project “for improving the business climate in Macedonia,” from 9 October 2006 to 12 March 2007. AllGov, presenting an official biography, uses the titles “WTO Compliance Activity” and then “Macedonian Business Environment Activity,” and places both in 2004–2006. No public evaluation of the business-environment activity was found.

### Teaching and party advice

Teaching overlapped the last year in the Trajkovski cabinet. AllGov dates courses in international economic relations and foreign trade at the European University from May 2003. Vistinomer dates a *docent* title from 9 July 2003 and, in January 2007, election as associate professor (*вонреден професор*) in international economic relations, foreign trade, and European Union policy in the economic field. The university says the Board of Accreditation recognized it on 1 June 2005 as the European University – Republic of Macedonia, describing itself as the country’s first accredited private university and as having emerged from the Faculty of Social Sciences, after that 2003 title. The Skopje affiliation continued after the Washington posting; a 2023 university biography lists him as vice-rector for international cooperation and as still teaching there.

In June 2006 the International Republican Institute said it had established the Ohrid Institute for Economic Strategies and International Affairs, with funding from the [National Endowment for Democracy](/organizations/national-endowment-for-democracy). More than 100 people attended the October launch, including Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, who said his government would use the institute’s research while carrying out its economic program. IRI’s account does not name Jolevski. The embassy biography calls him the institute’s founder and president, and a later university biography calls him founder and first president.

On party ties, the cable says he had never been strongly identified with any one party, but that he quickly became the governing VMRO-DPMNE candidate for ambassador to the United States after the government withdrew [Ljupco Jordanovski](/people/ljupco-jordanovski) following a public dispute with Macedonia’s ambassador in London. That cable, AllGov’s summary, and the Vistinomer chronology do not record a formal pre-2007 post as economic or foreign-policy adviser to Gruevski or to VMRO-DPMNE.

## Ambassador to the United States

### Appointment and credentials

In December 2006 the government of the Republic of Macedonia—the constitutional name then in use, and the state later renamed North Macedonia—nominated Zoran Jolevski as ambassador to the United States. A cable from the U.S. embassy in Skopje, sent on 13 December 2006, said the VMRO-DPMNE government had withdrawn Ambassador Ljupčo Jordanovski after a public dispute with Macedonia’s ambassador in London, and that Jolevski had quickly become the party’s preferred successor. The cable described him as an associate of the late president Boris Trajkovski and a former chief of party on U.S. Agency for International Development projects, rather than a party figure.

The Office of the Chief of Protocol’s chronological list of ambassadors records Jolevski’s appointment on 22 March 2007 and his status as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary from 25 July 2007. On that date George W. Bush received him in the Oval Office of the [White House](/organizations/white-house), in Washington, D.C., during a credentials ceremony for newly appointed ambassadors. A Macedonian biographical profile dates the Skopje appointment to 12 March 2007, about ten days before the U.S. protocol appointment date. That profile states that he became minister of defense on 19 June 2014, which ended the Washington posting. The State Department list gives his successor, Vasko Naumovski, an appointment date of 7 November 2014 and accreditation on 18 November 2014. Jordanovski is not listed on that chronology between Nikola Dimitrov, accredited on 12 December 2001, and Jolevski.

Jolevski kept the embassy while taking on the dispute with Greece over the country’s name. On 1 December 2008 Balkan Insight reported that President Branko Crvenkovski was to notify United Nations envoy Matthew Nimetz of Jolevski’s appointment as negotiator, and that Jolevski said former negotiator Nikola Dimitrov would stay on the team.

### Bilateral agenda

At the Bucharest summit on 3 April 2008, NATO recognized what it called the hard work of the “former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,” the provisional name then used in the Alliance, and its contribution to NATO operations, but agreed that an invitation would be extended only after a mutually acceptable solution of the name issue. On 7 May 2008 in Washington, Secretary of State [Condoleezza Rice](/people/condoleezza-rice) and Foreign Minister [Antonio Milošoski](/people/antonio-milososki)—not the ambassador—signed a joint Declaration of Strategic Partnership and Cooperation. The State Department called it a framework to expand cooperation in security, contacts between the two populations, and commerce. It pointed to troops serving together in Iraq and Afghanistan, plans for more high-level civilian and military contacts and joint training, and U.S. support for Macedonia’s security, stability, economic development, and NATO membership “as soon as possible.” At the signing, Rice described the text as a framework for which follow-up agreements might still be made, covering trade, people-to-people ties, and security training, and said Washington wanted Macedonia in NATO once the name dispute was reconciled. Balkan Insight reported that the signing had been arranged at Bucharest after the missed invitation, that the declaration reaffirmed support for sovereignty and territorial integrity inside existing borders, and that Macedonian media read it as compensation for the summit outcome. The instrument was a political declaration, not a treaty of alliance.

After [Barack Obama](/people/barack-obama) took office, Jolevski said he expected continuity. In a February 2009 interview with [Deutsche Welle](/organizations/deutsche-welle)’s Macedonian program, published by the Macedonian Information Agency, he said contacts at the State Department and with Democrats showed no serious change in policy and that bilateral cooperation was valued. He cited Macedonian soldiers serving with U.S. troops and the May 2008 declaration, which he referred to as a declaration of strategic partnership and friendship, and said he did not expect much effect from a letter in which 32 members of Congress asked Obama to change policy toward Macedonia. He added that a NATO invitation at the next summit would improve the atmosphere for the name talks.

Trade and the diaspora were part of the same brief. The May declaration placed commerce alongside security as an area for deeper cooperation. In Washington in June 2011, at friendship awards of the United Macedonian Diaspora, Voice of America’s Macedonian service reported that Jolevski stressed government reforms meant to promote business in line with European Union standards. The ceremony also honored a prominent Macedonian emigrant investor, identified in the report as Džordž Atanasovski, and U.S. diplomats Christopher Hill and Philip Reeker.

### Mexico and the OAS

From Washington he was given further accreditations in the Americas. A Macedonian profile states that on 22 October 2010 he was named non-resident ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Mexico, and on 6 April 2011 non-resident ambassador to Brazil. On 18 May 2011 the Permanent Council of the [Organization of American States](/organizations/organization-of-american-states) approved the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as the organization’s 66th permanent observer, at a meeting at OAS headquarters in Washington. The OAS account identifies Jolevski as Macedonia’s ambassador to the United States and quotes him thanking the council on behalf of his government. He said the request showed a commitment to work on common challenges, acknowledged OAS activity on peace and security, democracy, human rights, and poverty, and said Macedonia wanted to contribute in some of those fields while strengthening economic, commercial, and cultural ties with countries of the Americas. The Macedonian profile dates his appointment as permanent representative to the OAS to 20 October 2011, several months after the council’s decision. The concurrent titles ran from the Washington embassy until he entered the defense ministry on 19 June 2014.

## Negotiations with Greece over the name

### Appointment and mandate

In late November 2008 the government in Skopje appointed Zoran Jolevski, then Macedonia’s ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C., as its negotiator in the United Nations-mediated dispute with Greece over the country’s name. On 1 December Skopje was to notify UN envoy Matthew Nimetz, and President Branko Crvenkovski was expected to sign the formal note. Jolevski said that former negotiator Nikola Dimitrov and Martin Protuger, chief of staff to Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski, would stay on the team. He kept that ambassadorship while he negotiated; UN accounts in 2012 still described him as ambassador.

The talks had effectively stopped. Skopje had removed Dimitrov and, on 17 November 2008, sued Greece at the International Court of Justice over the 1995 Interim Accord. At the April 2008 NATO summit in Bucharest, allies said an invitation to “the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” would follow only once a mutually acceptable solution of the name issue had been reached. Macedonia argued that Greece had promised not to block membership in international organizations if that provisional reference was used. Athens argued that the constitutional name “Republic of Macedonia” implied territorial claims on its northern province of Macedonia, and said it would keep blocking NATO and European Union entry until the dispute was settled. Both governments said they would continue the UN talks despite the case.

### The UN talks

Nimetz, the Secretary-General’s personal envoy since 1999, met the parties under the Interim Accord, usually at UN headquarters in New York City. Jolevski’s counterpart in the rounds documented through 2013 was the Greek diplomat Adamantios Vassilakis. In August 2009, after Nimetz had circulated ideas in July, Jolevski said Macedonia expected “a mutually acceptable solution, which will ensure the preservation of the identity, dignity and integrity of Macedonian citizens.” Nimetz called the Greek reply “not positive” but said talks would continue; Vassilakis denied that Athens had largely rejected the ideas and said Greece had made constructive suggestions.

*Matthew Nimetz, the UN personal envoy, speaks to reporters in [New York](/organizations/new-york) in April 2013 after presenting a new name proposal to the Greek and Macedonian negotiators.*

How widely any new name would apply was already the open quarrel. In April 2010 Nimetz held another New York meeting, with no published proposal. Gruevski said he wanted a more concrete set of ideas, and that he personally would oppose “Republic of Northern Macedonia” if it had to be used for all purposes. Greece’s stated line, which the Foreign Ministry repeated in September 2014 as a position of many years, was a compound name whose geographical qualifier stood before “Macedonia,” not before “Republic,” used *erga omnes*—toward all, and for every use, domestic and international, including passports.

On 5 December 2011 the Court found that Greece had breached Article 11, paragraph 1, of the Interim Accord by objecting at Bucharest, and treated a declaration of that breach as sufficient remedy. Nimetz called the judgment important but “not strictly related” to settling the name. He met the two negotiators in New York in January 2012 and, that November, gave them several unpublished suggestions, offering to explain them in the capitals.

On 29–30 January 2013 the New York meeting was spent mostly on substance. Nimetz said positions had “crystallized,” that some of his ideas had drawn reactions, and that he was not disappointed. On 9 April 2013 he tabled what he called a concrete proposal, rewritten around the January objections, and hoped both sides would find “positive ingredients” in it. A text dated that day, published by BIRN in November 2014, proposed “Upper Republic of Macedonia,” with “Macedonian/Makedonski” for the language and a parallel formula for nationality. The name would be used *erga omnes* in multilateral official settings, and the Secretary-General would recommend it to UN members, but the paper did not require a constitutional amendment or a referendum and left internal use of “Republic of Macedonia” open. BIRN reported a cautious Macedonian signal that the paper could be a basis for talks, and a Greek rejection: Athens wanted the qualifier before “Macedonia” and *erga omnes* use at home, on passports, and in every bilateral relationship.

The last New York round of Jolevski’s tenure, in April 2014, brought what Nimetz called no significant progress. Gruevski proposed him as defence minister on 9 June 2014, and he left the name talks when he took that office. On 23 July President Gjorge Ivanov’s office named Vasko Naumovski, the new ambassador in Washington, as negotiator.

### What the talks did not resolve

No agreement was reached between the late-2008 appointment and Jolevski’s move to the defence ministry in 2014. Greece still tied a compound name for all uses to any lifting of its objections to NATO and to the opening of EU accession talks, and repeated Commission recommendations from 2009 never produced a start date. Jolevski’s stated line was a compromise that kept what Skopje called citizens’ identity, dignity, and integrity; Gruevski opposed a name such as “Republic of Northern Macedonia” for every purpose. The 2011 judgment did not rename the state or impose either side’s formula.

The difference was closed only after he had left the file. On 17 June 2018 the two states signed at Prespa the Final Agreement on the differences in Security Council resolutions 817 (1993) and 845 (1993); it entered into force on 12 February 2019 and sets “Republic of North Macedonia,” short form “North Macedonia,” as the constitutional name to be used *erga omnes*. Foreign ministers Nikos Kotzias and Nikola Dimitrov signed, with Nimetz present. The Secretary-General welcomed the entry into force, and the UN adopted the new name. That [Prespa Agreement](/facts/prespa-agreement), reached under Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, came later and was not a result of Jolevski’s rounds.

## Minister of Defense
### Appointment and NATO policy
Zoran Jolevski became minister of defence of the Republic of Macedonia (now North Macedonia) when the Assembly elected Nikola Gruevski’s fourth cabinet on 19 June 2014. VMRO-DPMNE and the [Democratic Union for Integration](/organizations/democratic-union-for-integration) won 77 to 6; the [Social Democratic Union of Macedonia](/organizations/social-democratic-union-of-macedonia) was largely absent after resigning its seats over the April elections. In a swap with the junior partner, Abdilaqim Ademi took education and defence passed from [Talat Xhaferi](/people/talat-xhaferi) to Jolevski, the VMRO-DPMNE nominee, previously ambassador in Washington and negotiator with Greece.

The Ministry of Defence dates the term from 18 June 2014 to 1 June 2017, a day earlier at the start than the parliamentary vote. He kept the post when parliament on 18 January 2016 elected [Emil Dimitriev](/people/emil-dimitriev) to lead a transitional government under the Przino arrangements, and he left when Zoran Zaev’s cabinet was approved on 31 May 2017. The ministry dates Radmila Shekerinska’s succession from 1 June 2017. The wiretapping allegations and the crisis around that handover are covered in the next section.

NATO membership was the standing aim. The country had joined the [Partnership for Peace](/organizations/partnership-for-peace) in 1995 and the Membership Action Plan in 1999; the plan’s annual programmes do not themselves confer membership. At the April 2008 Bucharest summit, allies agreed an invitation would follow only once a mutually acceptable solution of the name issue was reached, a condition that held throughout his term. In Dubrovnik in October 2015 he said the country was ready to join immediately, with the support of all political factors and of citizens — his claim, not an allied finding. On 11 July 2014 the [Atlantic Council](/organizations/atlantic-council) had hosted him for an off-the-record seminar on obstacles to membership and on defence reforms.

At the July 2016 summit in Warsaw, President [Gjorge Ivanov](/people/gjorge-ivanov) stayed away, his office citing disregard of the International Court of Justice judgment and the 1995 Interim Accord. Foreign minister Nikola Poposki and Jolevski led the delegation. The communiqué repeated the name condition and, saying political developments had moved the country further from NATO values, urged the Przino Agreement of June and July 2015, including credible elections and the rule of law, while noting the operational contribution.

### The armed forces and missions
NATO dates the [Army of the Republic of Macedonia](/organizations/army-of-north-macedonia) in the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan from 2002 through the end of 2014. From late December 2014 it joined [Resolute Support](/facts/resolute-support-mission) with 13 staff officers in Kabul and 20 soldiers guarding the headquarters. On 27 February 2015 Jolevski and deputy chief of staff Naser Sejdini saw off six officers for the German-led command in Mazar-i-Sharif; he called the deployment proof of commitment to membership.

He and chief of the general staff Metodija Velichkovski sent another six officers to the same command on 27 August 2015. The ministry’s account of the mission through 2021 — longer than his tenure — says more than 500 members served in force protection and staff roles with United States, Turkish and German forces, and in a five-person surgical team with Norway, on a train-advise-and-assist mandate.

In June 2016, 157 troops — infantry, military police, special operations and staff — joined exercise Anaconda in Poland. The army likened that to a typical ISAF rotation and said NATO procedures were used; Jolevski and operations commander Vasko Gjurchinovski attended.

In August 2016 he said a 2014–2020 plan was being carried out by twelve project teams of more than 120 experts, that two helicopters were under overhaul, and that buying of armoured vehicles and radars had begun. He also cited a memorandum with the Serbian military academy and two cadets at Norwich University.

### Regional security and migration
In February 2015, beside a joint governmental session in Skopje, Jolevski and Serbia’s defence minister, [Bratislav Gašić](/people/bratislav-gasic), called defence cooperation worth expanding in education, industry and public relations, and Jolevski invited him to visit later that year.

At Dubrovnik that October he signed a military and financial cooperation agreement with Turkish defence minister [İsmet Yılmaz](/people/ismet-yilmaz) and thanked Slovenia for supporting membership. On 9 March 2016 he met Croatia’s defence minister, Buljević, in Zagreb: Croatia, then chair of the US-Adriatic Charter, offered support for Euro-Atlantic integration and discussed Resolute Support and the migrant crisis, which Buljević called both a security and a humanitarian problem needing a joint European response.

In February 2016 he called the Balkan Medical Task Force — Norway and the United States with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia — important “in the spirit of smart defence,” with its headquarters to be in Skopje after ratification. The permanent organisation at the Ilinden barracks opened on 5 October 2016; North Macedonia chaired the steering board from November 2013 to January 2021.

On the migration route the army supported the police rather than setting policy. On 20 August 2015 the government declared a crisis around Gevgelija, on the Greek border, and near Kumanovo in the north. Interior-ministry spokesman Ivo Kotevski said the aim was local security and more orderly treatment of people seeking asylum, with the legal crossing kept open; the BBC reported that the decision allowed the army in and that about 44,000 people had passed through in two months.

On 31 August, with Velichkovski and Gjurchinovski, he said soldiers were steering groups of mostly about 200 to one crossing for registration and organised transport north, using Greek information on movements. The emergency, he said, ran 30 days under the constitution; any longer army role needed parliament. In February 2016 he said January arrivals were ten times the year before, that about 180 soldiers were on the southern border with extras for a second fence, and that a plan for up to 1,000 was not then required.

## Assets and the 2015–2017 political crisis

### Declared assets

On 19 June 2014 parliament endorsed Nikola Gruevski’s fourth cabinet, a VMRO-DPMNE coalition with [Ali Ahmeti](/people/ali-ahmeti)’s Democratic Union for Integration in which Zoran Jolevski became minister of defense. Two days later Alsat-M, using questionnaires already posted by the State Commission for Prevention of Corruption, called him the wealthiest minister in that government.

It reported real estate in the country valued at 660,000 euros, an apartment in the United States at 359,000 dollars, jewelry, shares and bonds of about 140,000 euros, bank holdings of 10,000 euros and 15,000 dollars, and credits of 140,000 euros and 180,000 dollars. Transport minister Mile Janakieski was placed second, with real estate of about 240,000 euros in Skopje and Prilep. The ranking was incomplete: Alsat-M omitted ministers without portfolio and said the commission’s site then had no declarations for several newcomers who had not held public office before, including foreign minister Nikola Poposki. Of the ministers it did review, it said those from VMRO-DPMNE had declared far more than those from DUI.

The forms belonged to the regime the [Council of Europe](/organizations/council-of-europe)’s Group of States against Corruption had described that spring. Article 33 of the Law on Prevention of Corruption required elected and appointed officials to file an asset declaration and a notarized waiver of bank secrecy; the commission published the forms, but checks of their contents were selective, and officials differed over family members and movable property of greater value.

In December 2016 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Macedonian service, again using the questionnaires, put the declared property of the 26 sitting ministers and their families above 11.5 million euros, about 450,000 euros on average. Jolevski, deputy prime minister Vladimir Peshevski and minister without portfolio Bil Pavleski were each reported at about one million euros, behind Goran Mickovski, a minister without portfolio, at more than three million. That figure is not the same measure as Alsat-M’s 2014 list, which gave gross holdings and separate debts rather than one net total.

### Government crisis and departure

Jolevski was still defense minister when, from February 2015, Zoran Zaev of the Social Democratic Union of Macedonia began releasing recordings he said showed surveillance of more than 20,000 people ordered by Gruevski and counter-intelligence chief Sašo Mijalkov. Gruevski said the tapes had been fabricated by foreign services.

His voice appears in one batch, on the name dispute rather than the surveillance. On 16 May 2015 the opposition released the set it numbered 33. In the transcript posted by Okno, citing SDSM and Nova TV, he tells then foreign minister Antonio Milošoski that mediator Matthew Nimetz felt excluded, and later that he had said identity could not be bargained in a bilateral agreement and should be guaranteed by a resolution. A longer exchange in the same release, on possible name formulas, is among Milošoski, Gruevski and Mijalkov; Jolevski is not the speaker. Vistinomer’s 2016 summary treated him as an interlocutor and did not present the recording as a claim that he ordered the intercepts.

The EU-brokered agreement of summer 2015 provided for a special prosecutor, opposition posts in government, and Gruevski’s resignation 100 days before early elections. On 14 January 2016 he said he would resign; VMRO-DPMNE nominated its secretary-general, Emil Dimitriev, as interim prime minister. Jolevski stayed at defense. Radio Free Europe still listed him in the post that December, with Dimitriev as prime minister.

The 11 December 2016 election left VMRO-DPMNE with 51 seats and SDSM with 49, and parliament approved Zaev’s government on 31 May 2017 by 62 votes. On 1 June Jolevski handed the ministry to Radmila Shekerinska; Makfax’s account is of that transfer, with no reference to the recordings. On 30 June the Special Public Prosecutor’s Office charged 94 people and seven legal entities in 18 related cases. Coverage named Gruevski, interior minister [Gordana Jankuloska](/people/gordana-jankuloska), Janakieski, Mijalkov and others; Jolevski was not among them.

## Later public and academic life

### Harvard fellowship

Jolevski was a 2021 fellow of the Advanced Leadership Initiative at Harvard University. Founded in 2008, with a first cohort in 2009, it is a university-wide, year-long program for experienced leaders moving into work on societal problems. Fellows take a core seminar organized on a “Person, Problem, Pathway” framework, join multi-day sessions on one major challenge, audit courses across the university, and prepare a plan for a later stage of work. The *Harvard Gazette* reported on 7 January 2021 that the cohort had 53 fellows and eight partners, and that spring programming was expanded online because of the pandemic, with the core seminar running from January through December 2021.

Harvard’s profile summarizes his earlier service to North Macedonia as minister of defense, ambassador to the United States, chief of staff to the president, and first secretary in the Macedonian mission to the World Trade Organization and the United Nations in Geneva. In a 2024 chapter he cited the fellowship project as *Comprehensive Strategy for Enhancing Economic Integration of SEE in Wider Europe* (Cambridge, 2021). The European University rector’s report for 2020/2021 records a project under a nearly identical title, dated 11 January 2021 to 30 May 2022.

### Universities, institutes and awards

A December 2006 U.S. Embassy cable states that he held a Ph.D. in international economics from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. Vistinomer gives the dissertation, defended in February 2001 at the Faculty of Economics, as “Надворешно-трговскиот режим на Македонија и СТО договорите” (“The foreign-trade regime of Macedonia and the WTO agreements”), and states that he was elected associate professor at the European University in Skopje in January 2007.

The rector’s reports for 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 list him as an associate professor in regular employment at the Faculty of Economic Sciences, including international trade, international finance, and public finance. The 2023/2024 report does not place him on that faculty’s teaching roster; none of the three reports lists him as a vice-rector. In the university journal *IDEA* in 2019 he, Biljana Andreska-Bogdanovska, and Filip Jolevski published “Multilateral Trading System on Crossroads.” The 2021/2022 report also lists *IDEA* articles, with Aleksandra Stankovska, on cybersecurity in the financial sector and on the European Green Deal.

The university library catalog holds *Светскиот трговски систем* (*The World Trading System*, 2006) and *Меѓународна трговија* (*International Trade*, 2021). The 2020/2021 rector’s report credits the 2021 trade textbook to the Institute for Strategic Initiatives and Policies in Skopje and a 2021 issue of *Светски трговски систем* to an Institute for Strategic Research and Policies. On 27 December 2023 the university hosted the promotion of *Економски политики на Европската унија* (*Economic Policies of the European Union*). *Nezavisen vesnik* described it as an imprint of the Institute for Strategic Initiatives and Policies on current European Union economic measures, presented by former foreign minister Antonio Milošoski. The 2024 faculty monograph *Knowledge and Talent – Foundation for Success* (COBISS.MK-ID 63971333) includes his chapter “Assessment of the New Growth Plan for the Western Balkans,” bylined to the Institute for Strategic Research and Policies.

The 2006 cable identified him as founder and president of a separate body, the Institute for Economic Strategies and International Affairs – Ohrid; its homepage does not list him. The rector’s reports also list him chairing a panel on defense-industry cooperation at the Bosphorus Summit in Istanbul on 8–9 March 2021 and as a security panelist at a “Day of America” meeting in Belgrade on 9 September 2022. The program of the NATO Defense College Foundation conference “Black Sea and Balkan Perspectives: A Strategic Region,” held in Rome on 28 July 2021 in association with the NATO Defense College, lists him as chair of the session “The Challenge of Regional Security and Inclusion.”

## Dated facts

_No published facts on this page yet._

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/people/zoran-jolevski